At the whaling museum on Nantucket Island, we had a very interesting lecture. One of the tour guides showed us a presentation and taught us about the history of whaling on Nantucket and throughout the world. There were many different stages of whaling and, for a while, it took place right off the coast of the island. The longer this was practiced, fewer whales came close to the coast and the whalers had to begin taking ships out into the ocean. Pretty soon, the Nantucketers discovered the Sperm whale and, because of the huge profits on Sperm whale oils and because of their huge size that does not permit them to be close to land, Nantucketers voyaged out for years at a time to capture them and bring back their bounties, returning rich men. These voyages would be very long, and the whalers would have to work very hard to bring down such a huge creature.

Next a wonderfully animated gentleman told us the story of a voyage that helped inspire Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. He had a knack for storytelling that made the listeners put themselves into the characters’ minds, which helped make the cannibalism that happened between the crew and other terrors seem more understandable in order for any crewmembers to survive.

After the story we were set free to wander about the museum. They had an exhibit of middle school students’ pictures of their favorite places on Nantucket Island. The posters detailed why those spots are important to preserving Nantucket’s history. There were plenty of tools and contraptions that would have been used on whaling voyages. The most interesting to me were the scrimshaw, which are pieces of art the men made from the bones of the whales. Some of them were pieces of bone with artistic carvings in them, and some were bigger and had been made into things like canes or a device for rolling string or yarn.

I really enjoyed the museum for its well-put-together history and story, but I had a hard time coming to terms with the large weapons and devices to kill the whales. There is a lot of talk of changing the whaling laws to make it more legal, but I have a huge problem with that, especially after seeing how amazing the creatures are through my own experiences. If they ever legalize whaling and the use of such weapons again, it will be hard to ignore how sad I felt for the whales being caught years ago. At least at the time of heightened whaling practices the whales were the only form of profit; legalizing it now would be for nothing but sport, and the extinction of the magnificent creature is just not worth it for a sport.